Rush: One Life for Thousands
by CCylimE
Summary: A group of teenagers take on extreme missions to become Black Ops.


Kieran landed softly on the stone ground, Emily a few steps behind him. A guard holding a shotgun stood ahead of them, his eyes scanning the horizon. A wall about three foot was all that was stopping him from falling down the steep cliffs below. The tower was set on the top of a large rocky mountain, and stairs spiralled around a large pillar that lead to the castle resting on the tip of the mountain above.

Kieran flicked open his silver penknife and walked silently towards the guard. Emily held her breath. This was the first guard they had come across that was standing directly in their way. She watched as Kieran swiftly placed his hand over the guard's mouth and stabbed the knife into his back, placing him quietly onto the ground and searching his pockets for anything he could find. Emily walked over, glancing around her nervously.

"What should we do with the body?" she asked quietly. Kieran chucked her the shotgun and she caught it, staring at it warily. Kieran took his knife out of the guard's back and held onto his arms, dragging him to the wall and flinging him over the edge, trailing blood across the ground.

"Problem solved." Kieran said, raising an eyebrow. Emily grimaced and checked the shotgun over quickly, before joining Kieran as they continued up the narrow stone staircase. Trails of blood would slow down anyone who decided to follow them, so the teenagers felt no need to dispose of the evidence.

They reached the top of the stairs without having to confront any more guards, yet Emily didn't relax. Ahead of them was a massive hall with a dark red carpet over the cold stone floor. It was very old fashioned – with famous paintings hung on the walls and illustrations carved into the high roof, which was covered in gold paint. Emily sighed.

"Shame we have to blow the place up," she said. Kieran shrugged, walking towards the large dark brown oak doors that were firmly shut at the end of the hall. Emily followed close behind, and as they reached the door, she placed her ear to it and held up her hand, warning Kieran not to speak. He closed his mouth and exhaled, shaking his head.

Emily pushed against the heavy door and it opened a few inches quietly, revealing three guards standing inside. There were weapons of all sorts in racks on all of the walls and ammo was littered on the ground. There was no mistaking it – this was the right place.

Two of the guards were staring out of a large window that looked out onto the snowy landscape which surrounded the castle, their backs to the door. The other was speaking into a crackling radio in fluent Russian. He was fiddling with a large gun in his hands and kept glancing at the small door to the left of the window nervously. He was facing the large oak doors and would have to be dealt with first. Emily relaxed her weight on the door and it closed silently.

"What shall we do?" she asked, feeling no need to keep her voice down. The guards wouldn't be able to hear them through the large doors and the crackling of the radio. Kieran took three daggers from his hoodie pocket, passing one to Emily. She held it carefully and frowned.

"Why cant we just shoot them? I've got a fully-loaded shotgun," she mumbled. Kieran shook his head.

"And alert the rest of the guards? Clever idea." he replied. Emily rolled her eyes and pushed the door open again, wider this time. Kieran narrowed his eyes.

"I'll take the two at the window," he whispered, silently entering the room. Emily's heart thudded. If they were discovered now, the whole operation would go up in smoke. She slipped inside the room, jamming her foot in the door to stop it from slamming. She held the knife in her left hand and the shotgun in her right and glanced at Kieran. He held up three fingers. Two. One. Emily aimed and threw the knife towards the guard at the radio. She watched it spin through the air and hit him directly in the back of his head. The radio clattered onto the ground and the guard went limp in his chair. There were short yelps, and at the same time, the two guards at the window fell to the ground, blood pouring from the knives that stuck out of their chests. Kieran wasted no time. He searched their pockets and waved at Emily to help. Taking her foot from the door, she eased it shut. It clicked and she hurried to the dead guard, the guard that she had killed, and took the knife from his head, turning away, not wanting to see his face. Kieran watched her carefully and sighed.

"Emily," he said, standing up and placing the blood covered knives carefully on the ground. He walked towards her and she looked up at him.

"I really hate killing." she said, her voice shaking.

"One life to save thousands," he told her, holding her gaze. She diverted her eyes to the bloody knife in her hand. She chewed on her lip.

"You're right," she said, biting back tears of guilt. "One life to save thousands." she began to search the dead man's pockets, keeping her eyes away from his face. Kieran watched her for a few moments, before taking the knives from the ground and placing them in his pocket. He walked over to the small door on the left and opened it, taking handfuls of grenades from boxes that were inside. He placed them in his camouflage rucksack and then dragged the bodies into the small cupboard, jamming the door shut and turning the handle. He looked at all the weapons around him.

"We did well," he said. Emily nodded.

"We couldn't have done it without Jay and Damien." she said. Their two team-mates were out on the dangerous slopes of the mountains on snow-mobiles, leading the many guards of the castle further away, distracting them to give Emily and Kieran enough time to complete their task without having to push through waves and waves of guards. Kieran nodded and took his bag from his back, placing it on the floor. He took out three packages of C4 and put them on the ground. Emily knelt down and began to check the wires, making sure they were set to blow. On their journey to the main part of the castle, the load out of weapons that were going to be used to attack an innocent village nearby, Emily had hidden packs of C4 and high explosives round every corner. Taking the small switch from her rucksack, she stared at it nervously. She had the power to destroy a whole castle and part of the mountain that it sat on with a flick of her finger.

"Put it away, Emily." Kieran said sternly. Emily blinked and put it back in her bag, making sure the safety button was clicked in.

"Sorry." she apologised, setting up the C4 and walking to the doors. Kieran nodded at her then looked around at the weapons.

"Such a waste," he mumbled, joining Emily at the doors and heaving them open. Emily just shook her head, holding the shotgun in her hands, ready to unload hell on any guard's that had returned from the chase with Jay and Damien. She didn't care how many she killed as long as she saved thousands. She thought this through and then nodded. Fair enough.

At the bottom of the spiral steps, Emily clambered through a window and up onto the roof which they had jumped down from earlier. The corridors that led to the stairs were writhing with guards, so she and Kieran had to make their way by using the roofs of the hallways. Emily would always walk in the centre of the roof, hoping not to slip and fall off the edge into the dark abyss of mountain below. Every few metres she would check the explosives she had placed there earlier, and when they reached the end of the hallways, they jumped down onto the snow-covered ground and used the white of the blizzard that was forming to sprint quietly through the car-parks and down the side of the mountain within thirty seconds. At the boundary of the mountain base, there was a string of guards returning from the chase. Large Alsation dogs were at their sides, panting. It looked as if Jay and Damien had taken care of the rest of the guards. Kieran nodded at Emily and they dropped to the ground, Emily taking the switch in her hands from her bag and pushing up the safety catch.

"There's not enough time to get back with the others, the Russian's will find the explosives in the load out room soon enough. Do it now." Kieran told Emily. She shook her head.

"It's too dangerous, the avalanche will reach us within minutes, we'll never make it to the bottom of the mountain in time." she said. Kieran looked at her.

"Two lives for thousands," he said. "Even if it is our lives."

Emily looked at him. He was right. They wouldn't make it out alive without transport, and there was no way Jay and Damien would find them in the blizzard that was forming. Emily looked at the guards. There were at least ten of them, the dogs sniffing the air cautiously. They couldn't run for it. Blowing the place up was the only option. Emily swallowed and nodded.

"Okay," she said. They had only a matter of seconds before the guards would start defusing the explosives in the load-out. She closed her eyes and was about to press the switch, when Kieran spoke.

"Wait," he said quietly. Emily exhaled the air that she had been holding in, her heart thumping.

"What?" she exclaimed. "I was ready to die then!" she slowed her breathing and stared at Kieran. He looked her square in the eyes and placed his cold hand on the back of her head, leaning towards her. Emily tried to move away but his hand was strong and he kissed her gently on the lips. He removed his hand and moved away from her.

"Blow it up now." he said, not meeting her eyes. She cocked her head to one side.

"What was that for?" she asked.

"Just do it."

"Why did you -"

"Do it now." he snapped, turning to face her. She nodded and flicked the switch. There was dead silence in the air, and then a loud explosion. The dogs in front of them went wild and dashed forwards, the men shouting behind them as they ran up the hill. Emily stood up and looked at Kieran.

"We can run," she said, dragging him to his feet. He sighed.

"It's no use, in about a minute the avalanche will get us," he paused and pushed Emily to the ground, covering her ears. Emily struggled and then felt a strong force shudder through her body. She shut her eyes and a few seconds later, Kieran removed his hands from her ears. She stood up, shaking and nearly fell with dizziness when she opened her eyes.

"Shockwave." Kieran said simply. Emily's ears rang.

"Thank you," she mumbled, before clutching her shotgun and stumbling down the slope. Kieran called after her but she didn't stop.

"Still time to run!" she shouted back at him. She turned and saw him roll his eyes, before he sprinted after her and caught up within a matter of seconds. Emily found herself skidding quickly down the slope and she stumbled on the snow, tumbling forwards. She rolled down the slope, narrowly missing trees but gaining some speed. She closed her eyes and realised she had dropped her shotgun. She exhaled and breathed in snow, upset. She had liked that shotgun.

A few seconds later, she slowed to a halt and coughed the snow and water from her throat and nose. She heard crunching and felt herself being pulled to her feet. Kieran laughed.

"Idiot," he said. Emily looked over his shoulder at the slope she had just come down. A cloud of white was sailing down towards them. Before she or Kieran could speak, the sound of barking startled them and Emily looked around her worriedly. Surely the Russian dogs hadn't followed them?

"Emily? Kieran?" came Jay's voice through the blizzard. The sound of engines was close by. Emily felt her heart skip a beat.

"Jay! Damien!" she cried. Kieran clicked his tongue and a huge amber dog bounded through the snow towards them, barking and wagging his tail. It was Apache, Jay's trusty Mackenzie Valley Wolf and New Guinea Singing Dog mutt. Kieran patted the large dog and Jay's snow-mobile pulled up beside them. She grinned.

"Get on," she shouted through the rumbling of the engine. Emily looked at Kieran and he pushed her forwards. She stumbled onto the back of the snow-mobile and in the corner of her eye she saw Damien's snow-mobile fly past, with Kieran flinging himself onto the back.

"Go!" Damien shouted at Jay, and the snow-mobile sped down through the snow, cutting it like water. Apache ran beside as fast as he could, but he was tiring. Jay clicked her tongue.

"Get him on, Emily," she said, dodging a tree that whizzed past. Emily leaned over the side of the snow-mobile and held out her arms. The dog knew what he needed to do, and he used the last of his energy to lurch forwards. Emily grabbed him and heaved him onto her lap, nearly losing her grip on the snow-mobile. The dog whined and she held him tightly.

"I've got him Jay," she said, and she saw Jay relax and pick up speed so that they were beside Damien and Kieran. Damien gave Jay the thumbs-up sign and Emily breathed a sigh of relief. They were clear of the avalanche.


End file.
